What Drives Firm Productivity Growth?

This paper presents new evidence on the causal links between changes in the business environment and firm productivity growth. It contributes to the literature in three important aspects. First, it constructs a unique database merging information from two large firm-level databases. The samples of both databases are merged on four criteria-country, sub-national location, firm size, and year-producing a panel of 22,004 firms in eight economies of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia,, Poland, Romania, Serbia, and Ukraine. Second, the paper addresses shortcomings of earlier studies, namely reverse causation, multicollinearity, and unreliable productivity estimates. Firm productivity growth is estimated drawing on corporate financial data from manufacturing firms included in the AMADEUS database. Changes in the business environment are estimated from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys conducted in 2002 and 2005. Multicollinearity problems in the full model regression are mitigated by constructing a set of six aggregate indicators of the business environment (using principal component analysis). The paper finds that, over the period 2001 to 2004, an increase of one standard deviation in infrastructure quality, financial development, governance, labor market flexibility, labor quality, and market competition raises the total factor productivity of the average firm by 9.8, 7.8, 3.2, 3.4, 5.8, and 3 percent, respectively. Lastly, the paper decomposes firm productivity growth and ranks the relative impact of changes in these six aspects of the business environment by country, by firm size, and by industry.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Anos-Casero, Paloma, Udomsaph, Charles
Language:English
Published: 2009-02-01
Subjects:ACCOUNTING, AGGREGATE INDICATORS, ALLOCATIVE EFFICIENCY, ASSETS, ATTRITION, AVERAGE PRODUCTIVITY, BALANCE SHEET, BANDWIDTH, BANDWIDTHS, BANKRUPTCY, BARRIERS TO ENTRY, BENCHMARK, BORROWING, BUREAUCRATIC EFFICIENCY, BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT, BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTS, BUSINESS INDICATOR, BUSINESS OPERATIONS, COMMERCIAL BANKS, CORRUPT OFFICIALS, CORRUPTION, COUNTRY AVERAGES, COUNTRY COMPARISONS, DATA ANALYSIS, DEFLATORS, ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS, ECONOMETRICS, ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, ECONOMIC GROWTH, ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE, ECONOMIC THEORY, EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT, ELECTRICITY, EMPLOYMENT, ENTERPRISE SURVEYS, EQUIPMENT, EXCHANGE RATES, EXISTING WORKFORCE, EXTERNAL MARKET, FINANCIAL DATA, FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT, FINANCIAL RATIOS, FOREIGN BANKS, GDP, GLOBAL ECONOMY, GOOD GOVERNANCE, GOVERNANCE INDICATOR, GOVERNANCE INDICATORS, INCOME, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, INNOVATION, INPUT FACTOR, INSPECTION, INSTITUTION, INTERNATIONAL LEVEL, INTERNATIONAL STANDARD, INVESTMENT CLIMATE, LABOR MANAGEMENT, LABOR MARKET, LABOR MARKET FLEXIBILITY, LABOR REGULATIONS, LARGE CITIES, LAWS, LEGAL SYSTEM, LEGISLATION, LIQUIDATION, LOCAL GOVERNMENTS, MACROECONOMICS, MANAGERIAL SKILLS, MANPOWER, MANUFACTURING, MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES, MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY, MARGINAL PRODUCT, MARKET COMPETITION, MARKET SHARE, MATERIAL, MEASUREMENT ERROR, MEASUREMENT PROBLEMS, MISSING VALUES, MONOPOLISTIC COMPETITION, MONOPOLY, OLIGOPOLY, OPERATING REVENUE, ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE, OUTPUTS, OVEREMPLOYMENT, PERFECT COMPETITION, POLITICAL INSTABILITY, PRIVATE COMMERCIAL BANKS, PRODUCTION FUNCTION, PRODUCTION FUNCTIONS, PRODUCTIVITY, PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH, PROPERTY RIGHTS, PUBLIC OFFICIALS, RADIO, REGRESSION ANALYSIS, RENT SEEKING, RESULT, RESULTS, RETENTION, REVERSE CAUSALITY, REVERSE CAUSATION, SEARCH, SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS, STATISTICAL ANALYSIS, STATISTICAL METHODS, SUBSIDIARIES, TAX COMPLIANCE, TELECOMMUNICATIONS, TELEPHONE, TELEPHONE SERVICE, TELEVISION, TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY, TRADE POLICY, TRANSITION ECONOMIES, TRANSPORT, USES, VARIABLE INPUTS, WATER SUPPLY, WEB,
Online Access:http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20090223101112
https://hdl.handle.net/10986/4037
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